During the first decade after the turn towards democracy and market economy, Hungary's society experienced profound changes that affected its regions, towns, villages and individual places in different ways. This is documented by thirteen essays that analyse related political, legal, institutional, and socio-economic structures and processes in time and space in order to contribute to a further understanding of Hungary's ongoing transformation processes and its current situation as one of the leading candidates for EU membership.
The topics include constitutive elements of a modern market economy such as banking, foreign direct investment, entrepreneurship, knowledge resources, the labour market, and the housing market. Further essays explore education and income structures, the poverty situation, post-communist voting behaviour, regional and urban development as well as Hungary's cross-border co-operations. With regard to European integration processes, the role of Budapest within the European city system and Hungary's economic situation within Europe are discussed. Drawing together comprehensive empirical data and a great variety of viewpoints, this collection of essays offers innovative examples of the application of different theoretical approaches to studies of economy and society in general, and transformation studies in particular.

Inhalt

The Role of Knowledge in the Socio-Economic Transformation of Hungary in the 1990s.- New Regional Patterns in Hungary.- Foreign Banks Are Branching Out: Changing Geographies of Hungarian Banking, 1987-1999.- International Competitiveness: Impacts of Foreign Direct Investment in Hungary and Other Central and East European Countries.- The Spread of Entrepreneurship in Eastern Europe.- Spatial and Social Disparities of Employment and Income in Hungary in the 1990s.- Development and Spatial Disparities of Unemployment in Hungary.- Poverty Dynamics in Hungary during the Transformation.- The Geography of Post-Communist Parliamentary Elections in Hungary.- The New Role of Budapest in the Central European City System.- Recent Differentiation Processes in Budapest's Suburban Belt.- The Changing Hungarian Cityscape in the 1990s: A Survey of Four Sample Cities.- Residential Mobility during Transformation: Hungarian Cities in the 1990s.- Cross-Border Co-operations in Hungary in the 1990s.